4 ms·
Back in the 90s there was an episode of the Outer Limits that touched on this subject. Effectively there was a nexus of information that everyone connected to t
by droz 15y ago
Back in the 90s there was an episode of the Outer Limits that touched on this subject. Effectively there was a nexus of information that everyone connected to through their minds. Anytime they wanted to know something, they just looked it up by thought and presto, instant expert. One guy couldn't connect, so he had to learn things the old fashioned way by research and practice. Naturally, the nexus goes down and people can barely function. He goes from being the village idiot to the village savior.
- run4yourlives 15y agoWe don't need a nexus and poor math skills to have that happen. How's your farming?
- khafra 15y agoOf course, spending significant amounts of time and brainpower preparing for the nexus collapse instead of optimizing for a continually functional nexus greatly lowers your income as long as the nexus continues to function.
- run4yourlives 15y agoSure, of course the best approach would be to optimize for one non-nexus function and then collaborate with others. For example, you probably don't need to know how to farm if you are a doctor. :-) Major digression though.
- mkr-hn 15y agoThere's an Asimov story similar to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession_%28short_story%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession_%28short_story%29
- GregBuchholz 15y agoAlso, "The Feeling of Power". http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories/feeling.htm http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories/feeling.h...